A Detour that Reached a City
The Endless Journey - John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Reading:
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His name is exalted.
Introduction:
With chapter 3 we gain the truth concerning what God did to save us and how we can accept the Grace He extended.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
This text came from a leader of the Jews having a conversation with Jesus regarding the kingdom of God and who can have access to it and how.
In John chapter 4 we see that Jesus intentionally seeks those who are far from Him, meets them in their sin, and then uses them to reach others.
This same mission now belongs to us.
In chapter 4 Jesus reveals a hint to his His thoughts towards the religious leaders.
3 He left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
I am not a Greek scholar; but there is a significant point from the Greek that isn’t portrayed or given insight enough into.
The word “left” here is a word that defines how and why He left.
The word is used to describe leaving something to itself, to it’s own fate, or leaving someone to their own devices.
Illustration:
Maybe you have encountered this kind of mindset towards some people.
There was a guy I once worked with who wouldn’t accept any help when it came to why the foreman didn’t like him and wanted to fire him.
He asked every guy on the crew and didn’t listen.
Week after week he would ask the same guys, until it came to a point that each man “left” him to his own devices.
I’m sure each of us have met someone like that, where we try and try only to step back from them and watch them self-destruct.
This is what seems to be happening between Jesus and the Sanhedrin.
He has been rejected by them, just as John already revealed.
11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
Jesus, leaving Jerusalem and Judea unto their own devices makes sense, considering the bulk of His ministry was in Galilee and elsewhere.
If they wouldn’t accept Jesus, He sought to reach those who would.
This is where we pickup today in Chapter 4.
4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
After He left the Jews to live according to their own traditions and human effort for entering the Kingdom of God He says that He has to go through Samaria!
This doesn’t make sense to any of the disciples.
Only Jesus knows why He needs to go through Samaria!
This is the:
God appointed Detour (1-8)
God appointed Detour (1-8)
What we may not realize is that the Samaritans and the Jews didn’t mingle!
Most Jews would avoid going through Samaria from Jerusalem to Galilee and it would add a significant amount of time to their trip.
The only way a Jew would go through Samaria to Galilee would be if they were in a desperate hurry to get through, other than that they would’ve chosen the more difficult route up the Jordan River valley.
The Samaritans were considered outcasts and half breeds by the Jews and avoiding them wasn’t difficult because they were isolated to Samaria.
Why did Jesus go through Samaria?
(?) Was Jesus in a hurry, was that why He decided to go through Samaria?
That isn’t supported by the text, especially since He hung around a couple days.
What would be the reason?
God had an appointed detour and followed through with His Fathers will and preached to the Samaritans.
For us: Maybe the road God calls us to is the one we would normally avoid!
Know that Jesus wasn’t concerned with cultural differences between people groups, He was dedicated to bring the truth to all nations.
Every person is important.
There is a sanctity of life from the creator’s point of view.
This includes the Samaritans
For us who is the “un-desirable” people?
Illustration:
When I was in Florida we had an food pantry on Friday’s at the church.
We would hand out food from Publix and other food that we purchased from the Harry Chapin food bank.
When people came every Friday you would realize that these are the homeless, destitute, drunks, addicted to drugs, etc...
A lot of them would put off a smell of Sanitizer and B.O.
They would be those who people would avoid when they saw them at a gas station or by a mall or crowded place.
They were the outcasts of society and always in need of something, other than the help they really needed.
Have you ever been around any people like this, did you avoid them?
You know what the “outcasts” are like.
Would you give them any money or go out of your way to help them?
It is difficult to navigate the line between enabling and helping.
Overall it’s easier to avoid the outcasts.
The Samaritans were the outcasts who didn’t deserve any religious teaching, any love or kindness, etc..
It was common to ignore them to the point that you would add almost a day to your traveling because you walked around Samaria.
Funny thing: The Jews believed they didn’t deserve any religious rights; but they were surrounded by a lot of historical places that testified of the sacred history of the Hebrews.
Jacob’s well
Joseph’s tomb
Mount Gerizim where half of the tribes declared a blessing contained in the Mosaic law.
It was almost as if God placed those things there to let the Samaritans know He hasn’t forgotten about them.
Jesus had to go through Samaria! They needed to know that the Messiah had come and is there!
6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Jesus was hot and His physical body had endured the heat of the day and needed to rest.
The disciples had gone ahead into the city.
Highlighted thought:
Jesus knows what He is doing at all times, and for what purposes.
He sat beside the well, and because I know the rest of the story, I believe He didn’t go into the city because He was waiting for that appointment by the well.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
This is a moment that while reading God’s word you could pass right over and not realize something important.
It was the heat of the day....When would be the best time for someone to go and get water from the well?
Illustration:
[Explain what the Rwandan’s did each morning]
There are 2 things that we can recognize:
She was alone!
She came when no one else planned to be there!
This would indicate that even she may have been an outcast in Samaria.
Considered A “lesser” citizen.
Which makes this next verse more valid, even on top of Jesus being a Jew.
9 The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Jesus accepts all how they come to Him!
The reason Jesus had to go through Samaria was not geography — it was a soul.
And at Jacob’s well that divine detour becomes a divinely appointed conversation.
God appointed Discussion (9-30)
God appointed Discussion (9-30)
He offers something to her:
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
Jesus wasn’t there to quench the thirsting of the body, He was there to quench the thirsting of the soul.
The thirst for truth, that refreshes the soul back into proper hydration and nourishment.
It is life giving!
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
After salvation when you receive what the Lord has to tell you, it is something that will last forever.
His word offers a quenching of fear, depression, wandering, each and every desire we have He offers quenching through His word!
Jesus brings the reality of her sins to her.
Typically people don’t realize that they need saving until they acknowledge what they need saving from.
She had many husbands, that is possibly why she was an outcast and alone.
She admitted the truth of her sin.
Jesus is presented to Her as the Messiah, lamb of God, who would take away her sins!
For us what He says next is true.
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus brings the Gospel to the outcast of the outcasts and revealed that Salvation is from the Jews; but in Him it is extended to the Gentiles.
Worship won’t be in certain places at certain times and seasons.
Worship will be in each person where they are and through the atonement He provides by His blood!
What an thirst quenching truth she desired!
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Her soul would’ve been overjoyed that the Messiah had come, spoke to her about her sins, and that even she could worship!
Connection:
Sometimes the moments we “don’t have time for” are those moments when Jesus has a divine appointment for us.
It may inconvenience us or disrupt our tasks; but if Jesus is in it, take the time because it may impact you and others for all eternity.
Look at how many people have been impacted through just 12 men!
Jesus desires to use each of us in similarly powerful ways.
The disciples came back which interrupted the moment and they questioned what Jesus was doing talking to “this kind of woman”.
While Jesus was rescuing a soul, the disciples were worried about lunch.
That moment became a lesson about the true mission of every believer.
Which Jesus utilized and shifted gears into a:
Discipling Opportunity (31-45)
Discipling Opportunity (31-45)
The disciples came back from the city with food and found Jesus to be engaged in conversation with a woman.
This was something that was violating the Jewish law as a Rabbi.
The disciples regarded Jesus as a Jewish Rabbi according to John 1:38; 49.
Most rabbi’s were instructed: “let no one talk with a woman in the street, no, not with his own wife.”
The principal was usually followed regardless of the context.
Another degree that they would take this principal to was: “let a man burn the words of the law rather than teach them to a woman.”
FYI: This Rabbinical teaching does not jive with the bible.
Women are never instructed to be kept under thumb and ignorant of God’s teachings!
We are to compliment one another with our gifts, and talents.
The disciples came into a scene of their rabbi speaking with a woman, not just a woman; but a Samaritan woman who was probably not well thought of even in her community.
They had thoughts; but didn’t voice them.
They only let Him know food was set and ready!
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
His response reveals what He was focused on.
He wasn’t focused on His fleshly desire, He was fixated on the spiritual desire of the woman He was conversing with.
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.
When a person’s soul and eternal destination is the important thing everything else falls to the wayside.
Illustration:
This principal is reflected in society through the decisions of mothers.
Mothers often give up of them selves, almost entirely, to supply for their children.
They sleep less
Stand preparing for everyone else and eat last
Mothers and wives often focus on the need of others in their care more than themselves.
This is something that we see Jesus doing.
The important thing to focus on wasn’t His physical desire; but the spiritual desire of this woman.
Jesus reveals this to His disciples as their teacher to follow the teaching, and for us too!
He provided an picture for what He meant:
35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Jesus could’ve been using the surrounding fields.
He could’ve been highlighting their task of evangelism.
He could’ve been referencing the coming people from the city that the woman was bringing to Him.
Either way Jesus highlighted their failed opportunity.
Connection:
They went into the city, all of them, and failed to bring anyone to Jesus.
The woman went into the city and brought many!
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.”
They didn’t testify of Him at all!
Their stomachs were the most important voice
But for the woman the most important voice was that of Jesus who told her all that she ever did.
She went and brought others to drink from the well that quenches the thirst of every soul.
Point:
Testify of things Jesus has taught you, done for you, and the salvation He offers with a sense of urgency for all you come in contact with:
You never know if your the one who plants, reaps, or harvests.
If you are the one who harvest’s spend time discipling or bringing them to be discipled.
Jesus stayed a little while for them to know the truth!
42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
43 After the two days He departed for Galilee.
Conclusion:
Jesus went out of His way to reach a woman no one else wanted to speak to.
He revealed her sin, offered her living water, and changed her life forever.
The moment she believed, she ran back into the city and told others.
She did not go to Bible college.
She did not have years of training.
She simply told people what Jesus had done for her.
From her testimony, many believed.
That is the mission of every Christian in this room.
There are people around you every day who are thirsty for truth.
They are searching for meaning, for forgiveness, for hope, for peace.
And many of them are the very people the world ignores.
The coworker no one likes.
The neighbor everyone avoids.
The person society has written off.
But those are exactly the kinds of people Jesus goes looking for.
lift up your eyes.
The fields are still white for harvest.
So this week, walk with open eyes.
Look for the detours God places in your path.
And when He gives you the opportunity, point people to the Savior of the world.
The same Jesus who waited at the well is still seeking those who thirst.
He has chosen to use His people to bring them to the water of life.
Those little detours can reach a city just like He did with the Samaritan woman!
-Pray!
